{"id":918881,"date":"2026-10-03T09:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T09:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918881\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T09:04:12","slug":"filip-hrgovic-sets-his-sights-on-one-heavyweight-next-i-want-the-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918881\/","title":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic sets his sights on one heavyweight next: “I want the rematch”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filip Hrgovic<\/a> has named a potential rematch as his most desirable fight, rather than a more likely title defence against mandatory challenger Frank Sanchez.<\/p>\n

The Croatian did, of course, become a world heavyweight champion in August, claiming the vacant IBF title with a stunning ninth-round stoppage of Moses Itauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Throughout their contest, Hrgovic was getting thoroughly outboxed and even suffered a second-round knockdown, before managing to take advantage of a severely fatigued Itauma.<\/p>\n

As a result, the 34-year-old fulfilled his long-term ambition of becoming a major champion but, soon enough, will be ordered to face leading contender Sanchez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was agreed, after all, that the winner of Itauma-Hrgovic would need to defend his belt against the Cuban, who accepted step-aside money under the condition that he is entitled to an immediate title shot.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of Hrgovic, however, a unification match with former foe Daniel Dubois is far more appealing, given that it would present him with a shot at revenge and the chance to claim another title.<\/p>\n

Speaking with The Stomping Ground<\/a>, \u2018El Animal\u2019 highlighted this as his preferred option, despite suffering an eighth-round stoppage defeat to \u2018Dynamite\u2019 in June 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Dubois rematch would be the best fight for me. And to get my revenge \u2013 to get [a] unification \u2013 that will be the best fight for me. But we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hrgovic, clearly, is determined to exact his revenge on Dubois, he must first defend his IBF title against Sanchez while Dubois, as the WBO champion, is entering a rematch with Fabio Wardley on October 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic has named a potential rematch as his most desirable fight, rather than a more likely title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-918881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}